Georgia Participates in Health Grant

The University of Florida is getting $26 million from the National Institutes of Health to speed up scientific discovery and medical advances to patients. Florida officials say the effort involves 12 of the university's 16 colleges, the Institutes of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the North Florida-South Georgia Veterans Affairs Health System and Shands HealthCare. The university announced the award Tuesday in Gainesville. UF is the only Florida university to get the award, but seven other institutions are also receiving the funding this year.

(Associated Press)

Georgia's First Swine Flu Death

Georgia health officials have reported the state's first swine flu death - a 43-year-old Cobb County woman. The Georgia Department of Community Health confirmed the death Friday and said the woman had underlying medical conditions, but did not immediately release additional information. The number of U.S. swine flu cases has surpassed 37,000 and deaths hit 211. Officials believe those cases - which sought treatment and underwent testing - are just the tip of the iceberg. They estimate more than 1 million Americans have been infected with the virus, though many probably had only mild illness.

(Associated Press)

July Opens With Bevy of New Georgia Laws

89 new laws take effect today, or ahead on January 1st. They include the massive overhaul of Georgia’s health and social service agencies. Identified by lawmakers and Governor Sonny Perdue as lacking in several areas, especially mental health, the restructuring begins today. Essentially three agencies will now handle the work previously done by two--adding one dedicated to mental health delivery.

Among some of the other laws ushered-in with the arrival of July:
-A pair of laws in the courtroom to strengthen victim’s rights.

-Embryos can now be adopted. The legal custodian of the embryos will decide how and where they are stored, along with whether they can be disposed of. Some medical doctors, researchers and biotech financers opposed the legislation, saying it could hinder reproductive treatments and innovations in the state.

-A new measure now designates April as Confederate History Month.

iPhone Apps for Students

The Medical College of Georgia is encouraging students to use their cell phones during class. The state's only public medical college has developed a suite of iPhone applications - called apps - designed to help students and faculty with everything from medical abbreviations to diagnosis codes. Others include a gestational calendar and a cholesterol management algorithm. In addition, students can use the apps to find buildings on campus, scroll through a course catalog and find out about events at the Augusta college. Administrators hope the apps can be used in the classroom, in the lab and bedside with patients.

(Associated Press)

MCG Athens-Campus OK'd By Accreditation Agency

It is full-steam ahead for the Medical College of Georgia’s track to open a campus in Athens following the nod from a national accreditation agency. MCG officials received permission from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education to admit 40 students to its new campus in northeast Georgia. An MCG officials says student applications will be taken starting later this month. The campus is scheduled to open in August of 2010.

Sen. Isakson Promotes Healthcare Competition

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson says competition is essential to solving the nation’s healthcare problems. His comments came Monday just before President Barack Obama addressed medical experts about national healthcare reform. Senator Isakson said it’s not the quality of American healthcare that’s the problem … it’s the number of uninsured. His solution? -- Improving the current system’s combination of private and public healthcare:

“Having private competition, facilities like Emory that are private, public like Grady competing with one another is a good system. What we have got to guard against is becoming a single-payer government paying system. You take competition out of healthcare and you’ll have less quality and a higher cost.”

Isakson says Medicare Part D is a model of success … where he says thanks to competing providers nearly all seniors now have prescription drug coverage, premium costs are down, and the number of providers is up.

Many Republicans fear the Obama Administration will bring the nation toward a single-payer government system. Several hours after Isakson’s comments President Barack Obama declared to the American Medical Association in Chicago that he does not favor socialized medicine.

U.S. Senators to Hold Hearings After Veterans Test Positive for Infections

A U.S. Senate committee will ask officials with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs how mistakes at three VA medical centers in the Southeast, including a clinic in Augusta, may have exposed veterans to infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs has set a June 24 hearing for VA officials to explain how mistakes with endoscopic equipment possibly exposed patients to infectious body fluids in Augusta, Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Miami.

The committee's announcement comes shortly after a U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs subcommittee announced it would hold its own hearing on June 16.

The VA has warned more than 10,000 former patients at the three medical centers to get follow-up blood checks. Five of the patients have tested positive for HIV so far, and 43 have tested positive for hepatitis.

In Augusta, the problem affected rhinoscopes in an ear, nose and throat clinic at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center. Officials in February said an employee improperly sterilized the rhinoscopes with disinfectant designed for exam tables instead of a stronger one specifically designed for the scopes.

A top doctor at the federal agency has stressed that the positive results for the diseases may not have come from hospital mistakes.

South Georgia Gets Air Ambulance Service

A new air ambulance service in South Georgia should improve access to trauma care for people in an under served part of the state.
Interstate 75 south of Macon is often referred to as the "Death Corridor." Once you leave Middle Georgia the highway takes you through a part of the state far from a Level One trauma care center.
If you have an accident there it can take you a long time to get to a trauma center according to Crisp County Emergency Medical Services Director, David Edwards.

"Macon is the closest place for us and it's about 65 ground miles for us to transport by ground, and then we have a Level 2 trauma center which is Archibald located in Thomasville, but that's 100 miles away."

The new air ambulance service will be able to pick people up at the scene of accidents. It is owned by Missouri-based Air Evac Lifeteam which focuses on rural trauma care.

11 Year Fed-Oversight of State Juvenile Justice Department Ends

Federal justice officials have ended monitoring of Georgia's Department of Juvenile Justice. The announcement was made this morning by Governor Sonny Perdue and the state's Juvenile Justice Commissioner, Albert Murray.

In 1998, Georgia entered into a memorandum of agreement with federal justice officials. It was the result of a stinging federal report that detailed conditions of overcrowding, lack of staff training, poor medical care, and inmate abuse among the problems in the state's juvenile facilities.

The Governor today:

"...we have made strategic investments and placed a focus on improving the level of care these young people receive. Our goal in this agency is to ensure that every child coming through these facilities is treated as if they were our own son or daughter, and I want to thank Commissioner Albert Murray and the rest of the DJJ staff for making the needed changes and improvements to bring our system to the level Georgians expect and deserve."

The lead monitor for U.S. DOJ, Dr. David Roush, wrote in the final report that he has seen substantial improvement in many programs during his 10-year involvement with DJJ. Roush singled out DJJ’s Office of Medical Services and Office of Behavioral Health Services, which he wrote are used as models for juvenile justice systems nationwide.

More Medical Mistakes at VA Clinics

Federal officials have been warning thousands of former patients they might have been exposed to infection at three Veterans Affairs facilities, yet other VA patients are not being warned about less serious mistakes with the same equipment at more than a dozen other VA centers.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' chief patient safety officer declined to identify those facilities. Doctor Jim Bagian said those instances did not involve an infection risk. More than 10,400 former patients have been getting follow-up blood tests because of VA mistakes with equipment used in colonoscopies at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Miami and at the agency's Augusta ear, nose and throat clinic.

(Associated Press)

Athens Regional Looks To Cut Millions

One of the bigger hospitals in the state needs to cut millions of dollars from its budget in order to stay afloat. The financial struggles of Athens Regional Medical Center are much like other health care facilities across Georgia trying to hang-on.

Officials with Athens Regional are considering all options in trying to reduce costs, but yet spur new revenue. The Athens Banner-Herald says the hospital needs to cut $14-million from its budget, and layoffs may have to be part of the plan. The hospital employs 2,500 people full-time, with another 500 part-time.

The weak economy has affected hospitals and health care centers everywhere in Georgia, whether in large urban, or small rural areas.

Kevin Bloye is with the Georgia Hospital Association, which represents 170 hospitals and health care systems:

"We did a survey among our membership the first part of the year and we found three out of four hospitals in the state are experiencing pretty severe increases in bad debt and charity care since October of '08."

A spike in un-insured patients, and dramatic fall in money-generators like elective procedures are part of the equation.

Bloye says federal stimulus dollars in the state budget propping-up Medicaid is helping.

Former State Representative Dies

Funeral services are being held in Macon for former State Representative, Wayne Elliott. The Florida native and Republican served two terms in the Legislature from 1990-1994. According to the Telegraph Elliott created controversy after he introduced a bill designed to protect medical waste incinerators, which another lawmaker was trying to ban. A business Elliott owned produced medical waste incinerators. The ban passed, but Elliott was able to receive an exemption for the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon. He is survived by a wife and daughter.

Veterans Affairs Will Avoid HIV Link

A top doctor at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says former patients who tested positive for HIV or hepatitis will not be able to show they were infected by tainted equipment at VA medical centers. Five patients have tested positive for HIV and 33 have tested positive for hepatitis since the VA started notifying more than 11,000 people treated at three VA medical centers in Miami, Georgia and Tennessee that they may have been exposed to infectious body fluids after using endoscopic equipment that wasn't properly sterilized. The blood tests are continuing. The agency has stressed that the positive results for the diseases may not have come from hospital mistakes. The VA's chief patient safety officer, Dr. Jim Bagian, said he doesn't think anyone will ever know.

(Associated Press)

Georgian Gets Double-Hand Transplant

A Georgia man has become the first person in the U.S. to undergo a double hand transplant. A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center spokeswoman says 57-year-old Jeff Kepner is in stable condition following the daylong surgery that finished Monday night. Kepner is a native of Lancaster, Pa., who lives in Augusta, Ga. He lost his hands and feet to a bacterial infection. In March, UPMC performed its first hand transplant on a Marine who lost his right hand when a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up in his hand during a training exercise in Quantico, Va. Eight double hand transplants have been performed abroad. Last month, French physicians performed the world's first simultaneous partial face and double hand transplant.

(Associated Press)

Muscogee Cty Chief Deputy in Contempt of Court

The chief deputy of the Muscogee County Sheriff's Office has been held in contempt of court and recieved a $50 fine. Sheriff John Darr said Chief Deputy John Fitzpatrick was cited by Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Doug Pullen after a courtroom dispute. Darr said Pullen became upset over the inconvenience caused by the county's practice of sending inmates to the state system once they're sentenced and bringing them back months later on various charges. An order must be sent to the Department of Corrections to get the inmates back to Columbus. Darr said an inmate whose name was on the docket Thursday wasn't in court because the request order wasn't received. He said the practice saves Columbus money on feeding, housing and medical costs and no changes are planned.

(Associated Press)

Perdue Signs Access to Flu Vaccines Act into Law

Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law today the Access to Flu Vaccines Act. The law gives the governor power to declare a “pandemic influenza” state of emergency. That would come if the World Health Organization declares a Phase 5 Pandemic Alert for influenza or the Centers for Disease Control declares at least a Category 2 Pandemic Severity index for influenza, whether in the United States or Georgia.

The new law also allows pharmacists and registered nurses to order and dispense flu shots without a doctor's prescription. This was the case in the state until last fall, when the Composite Board of Medical Examiners classified the flu vaccine as a "dangerous drug." That classification made individual prescriptions a necessity.

Now pharmacists and nurses can enter into "protocol agreements" with physicians. This gives businesses, like small clinics in grocery stores and drug stores, the ability to offer flu shots without a prescription.

In a press release, Perdue says the new law gives more access to the vaccine and "allows the state to respond quickly and effectively to any flu outbreak.”

Swine Flu: No Cases Yet In Georgia

Health officials across the globe are growing increasingly concerned about the outbreak of swine flu. More than 1,500 infections have been reported in Mexico, with a little over 100 deaths. In the U.S., as of Monday morning, there were 20 confirmed cases across a handful of states--but no deaths. Despite that, federal health officials have issued a public health emergency declaration as a precaution, and the head of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says people should be prepared for the problem to become more severe.

There have been no cases of swine flu yet reported in Georgia. Lisa Harvey is with the Infection Control division of Washington County Regional Medical Center in Sandersville. She says her clinic has been well supplied with information for doctors and patients alike:

"The CDC...the Georgia Department of Public Health, has all sent out numerous guidelines...they've been a great resource. And basically, I am personally not seeing panic. I think that people are more in an information mode...they want to know what is going on."

Scattered states across the country have closed schools, including neighboring South Carolina. A private school there was closed Monday over fears that students who just returned from Mexico might be infected.

Health officials say symptoms of swine flu are nearly indistinguishable from other forms of respiratory illness, including sore throat, cough and fever.

Inmates Can Be Charged Medical Costs

Georgia prisons now have more power to charge inmates for their medical costs while behind bars. Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Tuesday that allows state and county corrections officials to draw up regulations to deduct the money for some medical costs from inmates accounts. It does not include costs related to pregnancies and chronic illnesses, which include diabetes, cancer and renal disease.

Prisons are constitutionally required to provide medical care to inmates. But the measure's sponsors say it is designed to help offset soaring prison medical costs for those inmates able to pay.

(Associated Press)

UGA Readies for Medical Team

A team of scientists is ready to descend on the University of Georgia to comb over the preparations for the new medical campus scheduled to open next year. A good review by the Liaison Committee for Medical Evaluation could give the partnership between the Medical College of Georgia and UGA the go-ahead to begin recruiting students. UGA Provost Arnett Mace calls it a "very important visit." The committee is set to decide in June whether the college can expand its entering class by 40 students for the Athens campus in August 2010.

(Associated Press)

GA VA Patient Tests HIV Positive after Contamination

A patient at a Georgia Veterans Affair clinic has tested positive for HIV after being exposed to contaminated medical equipment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says unverified tests show that this is the third person to have the virus that causes AIDS among thousands getting blood tests because equipment wasn’t properly sanitized. That’s one patient each from Murfreesboro Tennessee, Augusta Georgia, and a Miami medical facility.

The contaminated endoscopic machines exposed the patients to the body fluid of others.

The VA also said six tests have come back positive for Hepatitis B, and 19 positive tests for Hepatitis C among the three locations.

(Associated Press)